The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-30
MARRIED woMEN's NIcKNAMEs.
The Odd Ways in Which the Idlers at
Saratoga Address Their Wives.
From the Neto York Sun.


From the Neto York sun.
SARATOGA, Aug 27.-When a lounger on
the veranda of one of the big hotels at this
place hears a man say, Hurry up, little
one, +" or Come along, BIRDIE" he may be
sure that it is a husband addressing his wife
and that she is enormously fat. Apparently
all husbands of fat women address their
wives with diminutiveS, if not with nick
names fit only for small women or little
girls. DAISY" Birdie" and Baby"
favored by the husbands of NAM
moth women. In this haven of con-
jugal rest, for Saratoga is distinc-
lively for married couples and has less con-
veniences and attractions for lovers than
any place in America, one gets deep
knowledge of the ways of welded folk.
This matter of nicknames for wives is one
of the most interesting studies. To pursue
this branch of learning it is necessary to sit
for an hour or two, on any afternoon, while
the music is playing in the inner garden
either of the United States Hotel or of the
Grand Union. All the rest the married
couples will do for the student. They will
talk unguardedly in his hearing, and he will
soon be able to classify the couples and the
pet names, for certain names go with GER
tain sorts of couples as infallibly as pie goes
WITH supper IN New England.
The very swell and exquisite young mar
ried men, who dress vainly and seek to give
the impression that they belong to the F. c:
D. c., dance at Delnonico's and know all
the fellows who have yachts, call their
wives with monosyliables, such as PuSs,
Chris, Hen, Fan, Loo, Tot There seems to
be only one marked exception IN the list.
You often hear one of these wives called
"Popsy." There are two Popsies at the
States and there is one at the Union. Oddly
enough the fathers of these same fellows,
men so well kept that you can't say whether
they are As or IS, are fond of drawing out
the full names of their helpmeets, as
for instance, Come heah, Francese,"
or Snow, my deah Eleanor, you
must have a wrap" Equally fixed
is the rule that thin and sickly women, dys-
peptics. neuralgics, and the like, are
addressed by their Iiege lords as wife,
madame, or Mrs Thompson, Mrs, Brown,
or whatever. The invalid husbands,
and all the prin and precise ones as we'll,
address their better halves as my dear. ="
This, by the way, is the established custom
with the Hebrews, though they usually are
heard to pronounce the words mime teer. ="
The clergymen seem to have united upon
the word mother" as q title for their wives,
and the men who are SO common here, and
who seem to be wrapped up in an only girl
or boy, call their wives ma.
Other nicknames resist classification thus
far, though perhaps the key to all can be
found by diligent application. There is no
end to the Dollies and the my loves, while
one hears miscellaneous lot of passages by
addressing their comrades as pet" One
plump little wife is gradually becoming
known to everybody in one of the hotels as
Sugar" the nickname her husband calls
out assduously and loudly all day in the
parlors and ON the promenades. The temp
tation for others to call her Sugar is grow
ing painful She is not the only feminine
confection, for, at the States, there is a
dimpled brunette who answers TO her hus-
band as 'Sweety;'' and yesterday a
prim-looking wife, somewhat the
shape of a board, was adj
dressed as Sweetness" before all the
crowd at the spring in Congress Park. 1t
may be an oversight, but there does not
seem to be darling" in town. A ruddy-
faced, corpulent man of 40, who looks as if
he was born and brought up in the Stock
Exchange, always addresses his wife as
Precious and in the same hotel hus-
band, who appears to hail from the West.
replies to his wife with Eyes, pigeon" "All
right, pigeon" and so on. AS it happens,
there is something about the wife's appear
ance or manner, or perhaps it is her shape,
that renders this oldest of nicknanes pecu-
liarly appropriate. The young fellows who
are spending their time in pulling the down
on their upper lips are fond of pointing out
Sugar" to all their acquaintance, and in
another week they will doubtless add
"Pioeonn To their stock of fun